Reading Comprehension Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 3rd Edition

3.
The security officers will be fired.
4.
Mr. Miller will get his radio back.
5.
Mr. Miller will be more careful about locking his
car door.
6.
Mr. Miller will get a new car.
7.
Some people who currently park in the garage
will find a new garage to park their car.
8.
Mr. Miller will be more careful with his keys.
Answers
Effects 1, 2, 5, 7, and 8 are logical predicted outcomes.
Effect 3 is not likely because it is too extreme; the
parking garage manager’s statement does not suggest
that he plans to fire security guards. Rather, it suggests
that he plans to look into the security problem.
There is nothing in either statement to suggest
that effect 4 (that Mr. Miller will get his radio back) is
correct.
Finally, there is no reason at all to think that Mr.
Miller will get a new car because his radio was stolen.
He’ll likely get a new radio and perhaps he’ll look for a
new parking garage, but there’s no evidence from the
two statements to suggest that a new car is a likely
possibility.
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A S S U M I N G C A U S E S A N D P R E D I C T I N G E F F E C T S
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1 2 8

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S u m m a r y
In reading, particularly in reading literature, as well as
in real life, you often have to figure out what the causes
of a particular event or situation might have been. The
same is true of effects: Both in reading and in life, you
spend a lot of time trying to predict the outcomes of
real or predicted actions or events. If you “read
between the lines” without going too far beyond what
the passage (or real-life event) actually contains, you
can usually do a pretty good job of predicting these
causes and effects.